Automation preview

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for automated management of campaigns using scripted rules.

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S.Patent Application No. 61/525,459, entitled “Advertiser CampaignScripting,” filed Aug. 19, 2011; U.S. Patent Application No. 61/555,092,entitled “Advertiser Campaign Script Execution Management,” filed Nov.3, 2011; U.S. Patent Application No. 61/555,086, entitled “AdvertiserService Scripting,” filed Nov. 3, 2011; U.S. Patent Application No.61/555,068, entitled “Application Program Interface Script Caching AndBatching,” filed Nov. 3, 2011; and U.S. Patent Application No.61/555,071, entitled “Advertising Campaign Script Execution Management,”filed Nov. 3, 2011; the disclosures of which are incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

This specification relates on-line advertising.

The Internet enables access to a wide variety of content items, e.g.,video and/or audio files, web pages for particular subjects, newsarticles, etc. Such access to these content items likewise enablesopportunities for targeted advertising. For example, advertisements canbe provided with search results in response to a search query providedby a user; provided for web pages of third party online publishers thathave content related to the advertisement; or provided in response to aspecific request from a user, such as when a user requests informationfor particular products or services.

An advertising management system can be used to facilitate the valueexchange between advertisers and publishers. Advertisers provideadvertisements, specify targeting criteria for ad campaigns, and offerbids for the opportunities to have their advertisements presented onpublishers' webpages. Online advertisers use advertising managementtools to manage their advertising campaigns. These management toolsinclude an account interface that allows an advertiser to create anddefine various aspects of advertising campaigns and ad groups, such askeywords, targeting criteria, budgets, bids for ad placement, duration,different types of advertisements, and so on. After the advertiser hasspecified the campaign and ad group data and activated the advertisingcampaigns and/or ad groups, advertisements can be dynamically selectedand served on publishers' webpages according to the various keywords andother targeting criteria specified by the advertiser.

Once an advertising campaign is launched, and advertiser uses theadvertising management tools to monitor the performance of theadvertising campaign. Depending on the performance of the advertisingcampaign, the advertiser may desire to change targeting, bids, budgets,advertisements, etc., of the advertising campaign. However, theadvertising campaign may have hundreds of bids, time sensitive budgets,and thousands of targeting criteria. Furthermore, the changing of anyone of these parameters may be dependent on various conditions. Thus,the monitoring of an advertising campaign and changing of multipleparameters at various times during the life of the advertising campaigncan be a labor-intensive task.

SUMMARY

In general, one innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification can be embodied in methods that include the actionsof accessing advertising campaign data including a plurality of campaignmanagement entities including an advertising campaign entity thatdefines an advertising campaign, a plurality of advertisement groupentities, each advertisement group entity defining an advertisementgroup and specifying respective advertisement entities, a budget entity,targeting entities, and bid entities, wherein each respectiveadvertisement entity defines an advertisement, the budget entity definesa budget, each targeting entity defines a targeting criterion, and eachbid entity defines a bid, and each are associated with the advertisementgroup entity, and a plurality of rules, each rule associated with atleast one of the advertising campaign entities and a user identifier,each rule defining an operation and a corresponding event, the eventbeing the occurrence of a condition defined for the advertising campaignentity, and the operation being executed in response to the detection ofthe corresponding event and specifying an entity change for a campaignmanagement entity associated with the advertising campaign entity, andwherein the user identifier is an identifier of user that defined therule; detecting events defined by the rules associated with theadvertising campaigns, and for each detected event: executing theoperation associated with the event by the rule, and in response to theexecution, changing the campaign management entity according to thespecified entity change and attribute the change to the user identifier.Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding systems,apparatus, and computer programs, configured to perform the actions ofthe methods, encoded on computer storage devices.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification can be embodied in systems that include a dataprocessing apparatus including one or more computers; a data storestoring advertising campaign data used by an advertising service, theadvertising campaign data including a plurality of campaign managemententities including an advertising campaign entity that defines anadvertising campaign, a plurality of advertisement group entities, eachadvertisement group entity defining an advertisement group andspecifying respective advertisement entities, a budget entity, targetingentities, and bid entities, wherein each respective advertisement entitydefines an advertisement, the budget entity defines a budget, eachtargeting entity defines a targeting criterion, and each bid entitydefines a bid, and each are associated with the advertisement groupentity; a computer storage system storing instructions that whenexecuted by data processing apparatus cause the data processingapparatus to perform actions comprising: accessing a candidate ruleassociated with at least one of the advertising campaign entities, thecandidate rule defining an operation and a corresponding event, theevent being the occurrence of a condition defined for the advertisingcampaign, and the operation being executed in response to the detectionof the corresponding event and specifying an entity change for acampaign management entity associated with the advertising campaignentity; determining whether the candidate rule has been executed in apreview context; in response to determining that that candidate rule hasnot been executed in a preview context, precluding acceptance of thecandidate rule for use in an automated management of the advertisingcampaign; and only in response to determining that that candidate rulehas been executed in a preview context, allowance acceptance of thecandidate rule for use in an automated management of the advertisingcampaign. Other embodiments of this aspect include correspondingmethods, apparatus, and computer programs, configured to perform theactions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification can be embodied in systems that include a dataprocessing apparatus including one or more computers; a computer storagesystem storing instructions that when executed by data processingapparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform actionscomprising: accessing advertising campaign data used by an advertisingservice, the advertising campaign data including: a plurality ofcampaign management entities including an advertising campaign entitythat defines an advertising campaign, a plurality of advertisement groupentities, each advertisement group entity defining an advertisementgroup and specifying respective advertisement entities, a budget entity,targeting entities, and bid entities, wherein each respectiveadvertisement entity defines an advertisement, the budget entity definesa budget, each targeting entity defines a targeting criterion, and eachbid entity defines a bid, and each are associated with the advertisementgroup entity; a plurality of rules, each rule associated with at leastone of the advertising campaign entities, each rule defining anoperation and a corresponding event, and the operation being executed inresponse to the detection of the corresponding event; monitor theadvertising service and each of a plurality of application services thatare external to the advertising service for events defined by the rules,each of the application services providing a respective application tousers and hosted in a network external to client devices of the users;and in response monitoring an event defined by a rule, executing theoperation defined by the rule. Other embodiments of this aspect includecorresponding methods, apparatus, and computer programs, configured toperform the actions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification can be embodied in systems that include a dataprocessing apparatus including one or more computers; a computer storagesystem storing instructions that when executed by data processingapparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform actionscomprising: accessing advertising campaign data including: a pluralityof campaign management entities including an advertising campaign entitythat defines an advertising campaign, a plurality of advertisement groupentities, each advertisement group entity defining an advertisementgroup and specifying respective advertisement entities, a budget entity,targeting entities, and bid entities, wherein each respectiveadvertisement entity defines an advertisement, the budget entity definesa budget, each targeting entity defines a targeting criterion, and eachbid entity defines a bid, and each are associated with the advertisementgroup entity, and a rule associated with the advertising campaign entityand defining and defining an operation and an event, the event being theoccurrence of a condition defined for the advertising campaign, and theoperation being executed in response to the detection of the event andspecifying an entity change for a plurality of campaign managemententity associated with the advertising campaign entity; detecting theevent defined by the rule associated with the advertising campaign, andfor each detected event: determining whether a value of a processingmetric for the rule exceeds a maximum threshold; in response todetermining that the value does not exceed the maximum threshold,executing the operation associated with the event by the rule and inresponse to the execution change the campaign management entitiesaccording to the specified campaign entity change; and in response todetermining that the value exceeds the maximum threshold: partitioningthe plurality of campaign management entities into a plurality ofsubsets, each subset being a subset for which a respective value of theprocessing metric for the rule does not exceed the maximum thresholdwhen the operation is executed on only the subset; and instantiating,for each subset, a separate execution fragment in which the operation isexecuted on only the subset to change the campaign management entitiesthat belong to the subset according to the specified campaign entitychange. Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding methods,apparatus, and computer programs, configured to perform the actions ofthe methods, encoded on computer storage devices.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification can be embodied in systems that include the actionsof a data processing apparatus including one or more computers; a datastore storing advertising campaign data used by an advertising service,the advertising campaign data conforming to a flat ApplicationProgramming Interface (API), and including a plurality of campaignmanagement entities including an advertising campaign entity thatdefines an advertising campaign, a plurality of advertisement groupentities, each advertisement group entity defining an advertisementgroup and specifying respective advertisement entities, a budget entity,targeting entities, and bid entities, wherein each respectiveadvertisement entity defines an advertisement, the budget entity definesa budget, each targeting entity defines a targeting criterion, and eachbid entity defines a bid, and each are associated with the advertisementgroup entity; a computer storage system storing instructions that whenexecuted by data processing apparatus cause the data processingapparatus to perform actions comprising: accessing a plurality of rules,each rule associated with at least one of the advertising campaignentities, each rule defining an operation and a corresponding event, theevent being the occurrence of a condition defined for the advertisingcampaign, and the operation being executed in response to the detectionof the corresponding event and specifying an entity change for acampaign management entity associated with the advertising campaignentity, and wherein the rules utilize a hierarchical data-model API toaccess the campaign management entities; converting, during execution ofa rule, each hierarchical data-model API call for campaign entitiesspecified in a rule to a flat API call for the campaign managemententities; and accesses the advertising campaign data using the flat APIcalls. Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding methods,apparatus, and computer programs, configured to perform the actions ofthe methods, encoded on computer storage devices.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification can be embodied in systems that includes a dataprocessing apparatus including one or more computers; a computer storagesystem storing instructions that when executed by data processingapparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform actionscomprising: providing data defining a template user interface fordefining a rule template that can be used to generate a rule thatdefines an operation and a corresponding event, the event being theoccurrence of a condition defined for an advertising campaign identifiedby an advertising campaign entity, and the operation being executed inresponse to the detection of the corresponding event and specifying anentity change for a campaign management entity associated with theadvertising campaign entity, the template user interface including: anentity selection menu from which a campaign management entity can beselected from a plurality of campaign management entities of advertisingcampaign data, the campaign management entities including an advertisingcampaign entity, an advertisement group entity, an advertisement entity,and a targeting entity; a variable declaration menu from which avariable type from a plurality of variable types can be selected; ascript editing environment in which a script can be edited by a user,the script defining the operation and which operates on correspondingcampaign entities that correspond to the variables; wherein: in responseto receiving a selection of a variable type, a variable declaration isgenerated in the script editing environment; and in response toreceiving a selection of an campaign entity, the operation is associatedwith the selected campaign entity so that the entity change affects thecorresponding campaign entities to which the variable correspond andwhich are associated with the selected campaign entity. Otherembodiments of this aspect include corresponding methods, apparatus, andcomputer programs, configured to perform the actions of the methods,encoded on computer storage devices.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification can be embodied in methods that include the actionsof generating a user interface for an application in the display device,the user interface including first and second user interface environmentselectors for the application, wherein each of the first and second userinterface environment selector corresponds to respective first andsecond user interface environments that provide editing tools for firstand second data types that respectively correspond to the first andsecond user interface environments; in response to receiving a selectionof the first interface environment selector: generating the first userinterface environment in the user interface; displaying, in the firstuser interface environment, a first menu that, in response to aselection, displays a first selection options that corresponds to afirst operation on the first data type and a second selection optionthat corresponds to a second operation on the second data type; inresponse to receiving a selection of first selection option, displayingan operation user interface for the first operation with the first userinterface environment; and in response to receiving a selection of thesecond selection option, transitioning in the user interface from thefirst user interface environment to the second user interfaceenvironment and displaying an operation user interface for the secondoperation with the second user interface environment. Other embodimentsof this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computerprograms, configured to perform the actions of the methods, encoded oncomputer storage devices.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification can be embodied in systems that include a dataprocessing apparatus including one or more computers; a computer storagesystem storing instructions that when executed by data processingapparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform actionscomprising: accessing advertising campaign data including: a pluralityof campaign management entities including an advertising campaign entitythat defines an advertising campaign, a plurality of advertisement groupentities, each advertisement group entity defining an advertisementgroup and specifying respective advertisement entities, a budget entity,targeting entities, and bid entities, wherein each respectiveadvertisement entity defines an advertisement, the budget entity definesa budget, each targeting entity defines a targeting criterion, and eachbid entity defines a bid, and each are associated with the advertisementgroup entity; a rule associated with the advertising campaign entity anddefining and defining an operation and a first event, the first eventbeing the occurrence of a condition defined for the advertisingcampaign, and the operation being executed in response to the detectionof the first event and specifying an entity change for a campaignmanagement entity associated with the advertising campaign entity;detecting the first event defined by the rule associated with theadvertising campaign and in response: executing the operation associatedwith the event by the rule, and in response to the execution, changingthe campaign management entity according to the specified entity change;and for each campaign management entity changed by the operation,storing a first value for the campaign management entity in a changelog, the first value being the value of the campaign management entitybefore being changed by the operation. Other embodiments of this aspectinclude corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs,configured to perform the actions of the methods, encoded on computerstorage devices.

Particular embodiments of the subject matter described in thisspecification can be implemented to realize one or more of the followingadvantages. The invocation of various rules based on detected eventsallows advertisers to automate the changing of many features of anadvertising campaign. The automation of such changes allows advertisersto focus more time on the effects of the change and less time on manualprocesses to implement changes. This shift in focus, in turn, allowsadvertisers to devote more time to achieving the goals of theircampaign, and this leads to better campaign management.

Rules can be triggered by events that are observed by an advertisingservice that is used to manage the advertising campaign, and by otherapplication services that are external to the advertising service. Thisallows advertisers to manage their advertising campaigns from a varietyof different application services, and have reports published in theformat for different application services.

The execution of a rule can be partitioned into subsets that areexecuted in corresponding execution fragments that are executed inparallel. This can, for example, ensure that the rules are executedwithin a timeout constraint defined by an existing scripting system.This results in fewer data collisions and an increase in throughput. Thebatching into subsets is scalable, so that scripts for very largecampaigns with hundreds of thousands of affected entities can be runwithin the timeout period.

The translation of calls scripted according to a hierarchical data modelAPI into a flat data model API allows for entities to be handle inscripts in a way that matches a user's mental model of an advertisingcampaign. Such handling, in turn, provides users with a more intuitiveframework for creating customized scripts.

A development user interface allows users to create customized scriptsin an automated fashion based on selected parameters. Users have theability to define templates, declare input output arguments, and eventsfor each rule. Accordingly, users are not limited to predefined sets ofscripting rules for an advertising campaign. Instead, users can generatemultiple different types of rules for an advertising campaign, allwithin a user development interface framework that eliminates manyscript programming steps that would otherwise be required without theuse of the development interface.

The details of one or more embodiments of the subject matter describedin this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and thedescription below. Other features, aspects, and advantages of thesubject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings,and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of an example online advertising environment.

FIG. 1B is a flow diagram of an example process for executing rulesassociated with a campaign.

FIG. 2A is an illustration of a user interface through which rulesassociated with an advertising campaign can be accessed.

FIGS. 2B and 2C are illustrations of automation menus for differentcampaign entities at different campaign levels.

FIG. 3 is an example user interface for keyword rules at an ad grouplevel.

FIG. 4 is an example user interface for ad group rules at an ad grouplevel.

FIG. 5 is an example user interface for campaign rules at an ad grouplevel.

FIGS. 6A-6B are illustrations of user interfaces for previewing rules.

FIG. 6C is a flow diagram of an example process for executing a rule ina preview context.

FIGS. 7A-7B are illustrations of user interfaces for executing rules ondemand.

FIGS. 8A and 8B are illustrations of permission dialogs.

FIGS. 9A-9E are illustrations of user interfaces for developingcustomized rules for a campaign.

FIG. 10A is a block diagram of example system for partitioning theexecution of a script into batches.

FIG. 10B is a flow diagram of an example process for partitioning theexecution of a script into batches.

FIG. 11A is a block diagram of example system for monitoring servicesthat are external to the advertising service for events defined byrules.

FIG. 11B is a flow diagram of an example process for monitoring servicesthat are external to the advertising service for events defined byrules.

FIG. 12A is a flow diagram of an example process for accessing campaigndata using a flat Application Programming Interface (API).

FIG. 12B is a flow diagram of an example process for determining a flatAPI call from a hierarchal data-model rule.

FIG. 13A is a block diagram of an example system for reverting anoperation performed by a rule.

FIG. 13B is a flow diagram of an example process for reverting anoperation performed by a rule.

FIGS. 14A-14D are illustrations of a user interface in whichenvironments may be contextually selected in response to a selection ofa menu operation.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a data processing apparatus system.

Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicatelike elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Example Environment

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example online advertising environment100. The online advertising environment 100 utilizes an advertisingmanagement system 102 to facilitate the sale and purchase of onlineadvertising opportunities between publishers and advertisers.

The online advertising environment 100 includes a computer network 104,such as a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), theInternet, or a combination thereof, connecting publisher websites 106,publisher client devices 108, advertiser websites 110, advertiser clientdevices 112, user client devices 114, and the advertising managementsystem 102. The advertising management system 102 further has access toan advertising content store 124, a campaign data store 126, and acampaign statistics store 128.

Each publisher website 106 has one or more webpage resources associatedwith a domain name, and each publisher website 106 is hosted by one ormore servers. An example website is a collection of webpages formattedin hypertext markup language (HTML) that can contain text, images,multimedia content, and programming elements. Each publisher website 106is maintained by a publisher, e.g., an entity that manages and/or ownsthe website.

Publisher client devices 108, advertiser client devices 112, and userclient devices 114 are electronic devices that are under the control ofusers. In particular, the publisher client devices 108 are under controlof users that are agents of the publishers, the advertiser clientdevices 112 are under the control of users that are agents of theadvertisers, and user client devices 114 are under the control of usersthat are not associated with the publishers or advertisers. A clientdevice typically includes a user application, such as a web browser, tofacilitate the sending and receiving of data over the network 104.

The advertising management system 102 facilitates the sale and purchaseof advertising opportunities between publishers 106 and advertisers 110.The advertising management system 102 includes components such as amanagement system 116, a scripting system 118, an advertising servingsystem 120, and a reporting system 122. The advertiser management system116 provides user interfaces for advertisers (e.g., using advertiserclient devices 112) to define advertising campaigns and ad groups,submit advertising content, and specify various targeting and/or adplacement criteria for the advertising content in each advertisingcampaign and/or ad group. The advertising content is stored in theadvertising content store 124 and the targeting and ad placementcriteria are stored in the campaign data store 126. For each ad group orcampaign, the advertisers can also specify bids for ad slots associatedwith particular keywords through the interface provided by theadvertiser management system 116. Advertisers' bids, budgets, as well asother campaign related preferences are also stored in the campaign datastore 126.

An account management tool can be employed by an advertiser to createand manage a large number of online advertising campaigns for variousproducts and services that the advertiser offers. The account managementtool can be made available to the advertiser either through an onlineinterface provided by the advertiser management system 116 or as aaccount management software application installed and executed locallyat the advertiser's client devices 112. The online interface and/or thelocally executed account management software application can be used fordownloading existing account data from the advertiser management system116 and for uploading new and/or modified account data to the advertisermanagement system 116.

The advertiser can create and manage multiple advertising campaignsusing the account management tool offered by the advertiser managementsystem 116. The advertiser can further specify multiple ad groups undereach ad campaign, and specify respective advertisements, budgets,keywords, and other targeting and/or ad placement criteria for each ofthe ad groups. Typically, the advertising account can be abstracted intoa hierarchical structure. For example, the advertising account caninclude one or more ad campaigns, each ad campaign can include one ormore ad groups, and each ad group can include one or more advertisementsand keywords.

Each advertising campaign is represented in the campaign data stores asa collection of associated campaign entities. Each particularadvertising campaign is represented by an advertising campaign entityfor the advertising campaign, and each advertising campaign entity canbe associated with one or more advertisement group entities, each ofwhich defines an advertisement group. Each advertising group entity, inturn, is associated with respective advertisement entities, a budgetentity, targeting entities, and bid entities. Each respectiveadvertisement entity defines an advertisement, the budget entity definesa budget, each targeting entity defines a targeting criterion, and eachbid entity defines a bid. Other entity associations are also possible,e.g., an advertising campaign entity can be associated with a budgetentity defining an overall budget, etc.

To create a new ad campaign, a user can first specify values for thecampaign level advertising parameters of the ad campaign. The campaignlevel advertising parameters include, for example, a campaign name, apreferred content network for placing ads, a budget for the ad campaign,start and end dates for the ad campaign, a schedule for ad placements, atargeted language, and targeted geographical locations. Other campaignlevel advertising parameters includes, for example, a payment schemesuch as a cost-per-click (CPC), cost per thousand impressions (CPM),cost-per-action (CPA), and so on.

For the ad campaign, the user can further define one or more ad groups.An ad group contains one or more advertisements, which target aparticular set of keywords, ad placements, or both. Ad groups under thesame campaign can share the same campaign level advertising parameters,but have tailored specifications for particular ad group leveladvertising parameters, such as keywords, bids for keywords, budget, andso on.

Generally, an advertiser can create different ad groups to have morefocused targeting on different product lines or services. For example,different sets of keywords specific to the different product lines orservices can be used for the different ad groups. Sometimes, differentad groups can also target different market segments and/or demographiccharacteristics. Keywords specific for the different market segmentsand/or demographic characteristics can be included in the different adgroups.

To create a new ad group, the user can first specify values for the adgroup level advertising parameters of the ad group. The ad group leveladvertising parameters include, for example, an ad group name, andvarious bids for different ad placement opportunities (e.g., automaticplacement, advertiser managed placement, etc.) or outcomes (e.g.,clicks, impressions, conversions). An ad group name can be one or moreterms that the user can use to concisely capture a topic or subjectmatter that the ad group is targeting. For example, a car dealership cancreate a different ad group for each type of vehicles it carries, andmay further create a different ad group for each model of vehicles itcarries. Examples of the ad group themes that the car dealership can useinclude, for example, “sports car,” “sedan,” “truck,” “hybrid,” and soon.

After creating the campaign and one or more ad groups under thecampaign, the advertiser can specify one or more keywords andadvertisements to each ad group. The keywords are typically terms thatare relevant to the product or services that the user wishes to promotefor the ad group. Each keyword can include one or more terms. Forexample, the car dealership may include “automobile”, “sports car,” “V-6engine,” “four-wheel drive,” “fuel efficiency,” and so on as keywordsfor its ad groups and ad campaigns. The advertiser can also specifywhether exact match of keywords are required for ad placements on thecontent network.

In addition to keywords, for each ad group, the advertiser can alsospecify a number of advertisements for selection by the ad server whenan advertising opportunity becomes available that matches the budget, adschedule, maximum bids, keywords, and other targeting criteria specifiedfor the ad group. Different types of ads can be included in an ad group,such as a text ad, an image ad, a local business ad, a mobile ad, and soon.

Other aspects of the ad group can be defined in terms of variousadvertising parameters and specified by user-entered values or defaultvalues for those various advertising parameters. After the advertiserhas specified all the required advertising parameters for each level andaspect of the ad campaign(s), the advertising campaign entity data(e.g., including the campaign structure and the advertising parameterson each level within the campaign structure) can be uploaded to theadvertiser management system 116, and the data are persisted to thecampaign data store 126. The advertising campaign can be created andactivated according to the advertising campaign data specified by theadvertiser.

The management system 116 also provides an interface for publishers(e.g., using publisher client devices 108) to specify ad slots availableon the publisher's online properties. For example, the publishers canspecify the cost, type, dimensions, and targeting criteria (e.g.,keywords associated with the content of the online properties) for eachad slot. The publisher management server 118 provides scripts orreferences to scripts to the publishers according to the specificationsof the ad slots.

Each publisher 106 can insert instructions into its webpages or contentitems. When the webpages and content items are downloaded to user clientdevices 114, the instructions are executed to generate one or more adrequests to the advertising management system 102. The advertisingserving system 120 of the advertising management system 102 responds tothe ad requests by sending advertisements to the requesting user clientdevice 114 for insertion into appropriate ad slots in the publisher'swebpages or content items as rendered on the requesting user clientdevice 114. The advertisements can include embedded links to landingpages (e.g., webpages on the advertisers' websites 110) that a user isdirected to when the user clicks on the advertisements presented on thepublisher's webpages or in the content items.

The ad requests are optionally associated with user characteristics(e.g., user's age, gender, income, language preferences, and so on) andadvertising context (e.g., keywords associated with webpage content,location, local time of ad request, and so on).

Various user privacy measures are implemented to remove personallyidentifiable information from the user characteristics data. Theadvertising serving system 120 can select advertisements from theadvertising content store 124 for each ad request based on a matchbetween an advertiser's campaign criteria in the campaign data store 126and the user characteristics and advertising context associated with thead request.

The advertisements provided after a successful match, and optionallyuser responses (e.g., click-throughs, conversions, and so on) to theadvertisements, can be tracked by various tracking mechanisms (e.g.,tracking cookies, pixel callbacks, etc.), sent back to the advertisingmanagement system 102, and stored in the campaign statistics store 128.The tracking is enabled by various user opt-in processes. The reportingsystem 122 provides user interfaces for advertisers and publishers toreview reports on the campaign statistics in various formats.Performance of particular keywords, ad groups, and campaigns can bemeasured based on various performance metrics, such as cost per action(e.g., click or conversion), conversion length (e.g., number of clicksbetween initial impression and conversion), and so on.

Scripting System

The advertising management system 102 also includes a scripting system118 that facilitates advertising server scripting for automatedmanagement of an online advertising campaign. In some implementations,the scripting system 118 can be a part of the advertisement managementsystem 116, and be realized by series of online user interfaces or auser interfaces generated from locally executed account managementsoftware.

Each advertiser, by means of user interface provided by the scriptingsystem 118, can define scripted rules 130 and associate the rules withtheir advertising campaigns. The scripting system 118 facilitates theautomation of actions that allow advertisers to associate campaignmanagement operations with events that trigger the automations. Thecombination of one or more events and one or more operations is definedas a rule. The advertisement management system 102 monitors for theevents, and upon the occurrence of events associated with a particularrule, the operations associated with that rule are executed.

In some implementations, the scripting system 118 pre-authorizes theoperation of a rule based on the credentials of a particular user thatis generating the rule. For example, if a particular advertisingexecutive of an advertiser generates a rule by use of the scriptingsystem 118, and the user is authorized to manually perform theoperations defined by the rule, then the scripting system pre-authorizesthe execution of the rule on behalf of the user. In addition, changesmade to the campaign according to the specified changes of the rule areattributed to the user. Conversely, if the user is not authorized tomanually perform the operations defined by the rule, then the scriptingsystem does not pre-authorize the execution of the rule on behalf of theuser.

Each rule is associated with an advertising campaign entity (e.g.,directly associated with an advertising campaign entity or associatedwith a child entity of the advertising campaign entity) and defines anoperation and a corresponding event. As used in this specification, anevent is the occurrence of a condition defined for the advertisingcampaign(s) (or child entities of the advertising campaign) by theadvertiser. The condition can be budget related, performance related,date related, targeting related, user device type related, etc., andcombinations of one or more of these conditions. Events are described inmore detail below.

The scripting system 118 executes the operation in response to thedetection of the corresponding event. Each operation specifies an entitychange for a campaign management entity associated with the advertisingcampaign entity and the rule.

FIG. 1B is a flow diagram of an example process 150 for executing rulesassociated with a campaign. The process 150 can be implemented by thescripting system 118.

The scripting system 118 accesses advertising campaign data thatincludes campaign entities and rules (152). For example, the scriptingsystem 118 accesses the campaign data store 126 of the advertisingmanagement system 102, and scripted rules 130 that are associated withthe campaign data and defined by the advertisers.

The scripting system 118 detects events defined by the rules (154). Forexample, the scripting system 118, for each rule, determines thecondition defined by the rule and checks to determine if the conditionhas occurred. If the condition has occurred, then the event is detected.An example of a condition is a click through rate associated with an adgroup exceeding a threshold percentage defined by the advertiser. Theconditions can be checked periodically, e.g., according to a frequencyparameter associated with the rule. Conditions and frequencies aredescribed in more detail below.

The scripting system 118 executes operations associated with thedetected event for a rule (156). For example, scripting system 118 willchange values associated with corresponding campaign entities affect bythe operation and persist the changes to the campaign data store 126. Anexample of an operation is a changing of the cost per click bidassociated with a particular ad group by a predefined percentage.Operations are described in more detail below.

In some implementations, each rule is also associated with the useridentifier of the user that defined the rule. When the operationsassociated with the event by the rule are executed, the campaignmanagement entity changes that occur are attributed to the useridentifier. This allows the advertiser to track responsible parties thatauthorized the change to particular campaign entities, and, in someimplementations, precludes the execution of the operation ifauthorization privileges associated with the user identifier have beenrevoked.

Example Scripting User Interfaces

The scripting system 118 provides a variety of user interfaces thatfacilitate the creation of rules for campaigns. FIG. 2A illustrates auser interface 200 through which rules associated with an advertisingcampaign can be accessed. As shown by the path 202 in FIG. 2A, campaignentities associated with a campaign identified by the advertisingcampaign entity “stamp classes” and an advertising group identified bythe advertising group entity “cards” are displayed. The particularcampaign entities that are shown are keyword targeting entities, asindicated by the selected tab of the tab list 204.

Various keywords and associated parameters are identified by data shownin the columns 206. For example, the keywords “stamping classes”,“stampin up classes”, etc., are associated with the ad group cards ofthe advertising campaign stamp classes. Thus, advertisements that areassociated with this ad group are targeted using the keywords shown. Theuser may select specific keywords shown in the columns.

The user interface 200 includes an automate menu button 208 that can beused to access and manage rules associated with the advertising group“cards.” In response to a selection of the automate menu button 208, theuser interface 200 generates an automation menu 210. The menu includesmultiple submenus 212, 214, 216, 218, and 222.

In some implementations, the submenus 212, 220, and 222 are static menusthat are shown each time an automate menu button 208 is selected, andeach additional submenu (e.g., submenus 214, 216, and 218) arecontextual menus that are dependent on the particular campaign entity towhich the user interface 200 corresponds. In FIG. 2A, for example, theuser interface 200 presents keywords at an advertising group level. Thecontextual submenu 214 corresponds to keywords, and can be used toaccess an environment for creating rules for keywords. For example, asshown in FIG. 2A, rules with three different types of operations can becreated—pausing keywords, changing a max cost per click (CPC) bid, andraising bids to a first page CPC. Likewise, the contextual submenu 216corresponds to ad groups, and can be used to access an environment forcreating rules for ad groups. Here, rules with two different types ofoperations can be created—pausing an ad group, and changing an ad groupmax CPC. Similarly, the contextual submenu 218 can be used to accessenvironment for creating rules for campaigns. From the submenu 218,rules with two different types of operations can be created—pausing thecampaign, and changing a daily budget.

The rule creation options shown in FIG. 2A are an example default set ofrule creation options that available to all advertisers. As will bedescribe in more detail below, advertisers may also define customizedoperations for creating rules, and associate the customized rules withparticular campaign entities. If such customized operations are defined,they are shown in the automation menu 210 if the user interface fromwhich the automation menu is invoked is at a campaign level thatcorresponds to an associated customized operation.

In general, an automation menu for a particular user interfacecorresponds to particular campaign level and campaign entities to whichthe user interface corresponds. FIGS. 2B and 2C are illustrations ofautomation menus for different campaign entities at different campaignlevels. The automation menus 230 and 240 of FIG. 2B are automation menusthat are generated at the campaign level for user interfaces thatrespectively present ad groups and keywords at the campaign level. Theautomation menu 230 includes contextual submenus 234 and 236. Thecontextual submenu 234 corresponds to advertising groups, and can beused to create rules for advertising groups. Likewise, the contextualsubmenu 236 corresponds to campaigns, and can be used to create rulesfor campaigns. The automation menu 240 is similar to the automation menu230, including two contextual submenus 244 and 246. The contextualsubmenu 244 corresponds to keywords, and the contextual submenu 246corresponds to campaigns.

The automation menus 250, 260, and 270 of FIG. 2C are automation menusthat are generated for user interfaces that present all advertisingcampaigns associated with an advertiser. The automation menu 250 isgenerated in the user interface from which the user may select multiplecampaigns, and includes contextual submenus 254, 256, and 258, that arerespectively associated with campaigns, ad groups, and keywords.Likewise, the contextual submenu 260 is generated in a user interface inwhich a user may select multiple advertising groups from multiplecampaigns, and includes contextual submenus 264, 266, and 268 that arerespectively associated with advertising groups, campaigns, andkeywords. The contextual submenu 270 is generated in a user interface inwhich a user may select multiple keywords for multiple campaigns, andincludes contextual submenus 274, 276, and 278 that are respectivelyassociated with keywords, advertising groups, and campaigns.

FIG. 3 is an example user interface 300 for keyword rules at an ad grouplevel. The user interface 300, for example, can be accessed through anautomation menu, or through another user interface element that can beused to invoke a rule creation environment. The user interface 300 isbeing used to create a rule titled “Raise bids to first page CPC.”

An apply menu 302 is used to select campaign entities to which the rulewill be associated. As shown in FIG. 3, the rule is currently selectedto be applied to all keywords in a selected advertisement group. Analternative application selection could be, for example, a subset ofkeywords within an advertisement group.

The rule defines a corresponding operation 304 that, when executed,results in an increase in keyword bids for all keywords in the ad group,up to a maximum bid of $10, or some other value specified by theadvertiser. For example, if the operation were to be executed, and acurrent first page cost per click for certain keywords is $4.50 andcurrent keyword bids in the ad group are $3.25, then bid entities forthe current keyword bids are increased to $4.50.

Also associated with the rule are conditions that define the event thatwill result in execution of the operation. The conditions are defined byrequirements 306, each with different corresponding conditionthresholds. The example condition shown are a keyword click through rateof 3.25% or higher, and an advertisement group spent budget of 90% orless. Accordingly, provided the budget for the advertisement group isnot almost exhausted (e.g., less than 90% spent), bids forhigh-performing keywords (e.g., keywords with the click through rate of3.25% or higher) will be increased up to a maximum of $10. Additionalrequirements can be added by the user in response to the user selectingthe “+ Add requirement” link.

Frequency menu items 308 are used to define one or more frequencyparameters for the rule. Frequency parameters are used to define thefrequency and frequency conditions at which the rule is executed. Asshown in FIG. 3, the rule is to be executed daily at 1:00 PM usingperformance data from the prior day. Other frequencies can also be used,such as weekly, monthly, or even a one-time frequency. Likewise,different times can be used, and performance data can be used from othertime periods, such as data from the last week, or even data from thelast month. In some implementations, rules can be defined with frequencyparameters, and each rule defined with the default frequency parametersare executed at the same frequency.

The user interface 300 includes a name input field 310 in which a usermay type the name of the rule, and a reporting menu item 312 throughwhich a user may specify an e-mail reporting frequency.

The user interface 300 also includes a preview rule button 314. In someimplementations, such as the implementation shown in FIG. 3, the rulemust be previewed before the rule can be persisted to the scripted rules130 for use in the automated management of an advertising campaign.Previewing the rule is described in more detail with respect to FIGS.6A-6D.

A save button 316 and a cancel button 318 are also included in the userinterface 300. As depicted in FIG. 3, the save button 316 is currentlydisabled, indicating that the rule has not been previewed. Once the ruleis previewed, the rule may be saved by use of the save button 316. Oncethe rule is saved, the rule will be available in the application menufor user interfaces that correspond to campaign entities to which therule is to be applied as specified by the apply menu 302. Accordingly,by creating multiple rules and associating each with different campaignentities, the scripting system 118 creates a context-based ruleapplication environment.

The options available in the apply menu 302 can, in someimplementations, differ depending upon the particular campaign entitylevel from which a user invoked the user interface 300. The options varybecause the campaign management entities are associated according to ahierarchy in which the advertisement entities, budget entities,targeting entities, and bid entities are subordinate to theadvertisement group entities, and the advertisement group entities aresubordinate to the campaign management entities. Thus, in someimplementations, a rule applied to any campaign entity at a particularnode in a hierarchy may also be selectively applied to other campaignentities of the same type but at different nodes in the hierarchy.

For example, as described above, the user interface was invoked at anadvertisement group level (i.e., invoked from a user interface in whichkeywords for a particular advertisement group are shown). Accordingly,the available options to which the rule may be applied are all keywordswithin the advertisement group, and selected keywords within theadvertisement group. In some implementations, if the user interface wereinvoked at a campaign level (i.e., invoked from a previous userinterface in which keywords for a particular advertisement campaign areshown), then the available options to which the rule may be applied areall keywords in the particular campaign, and a subset selected keywordswithin the advertisement campaign. Likewise, if the user interface wereinvoked from user interface in which keywords were shown for alladvertising campaigns for a particular advertiser (e.g., an “allcampaigns” level), then the available options to which the rule may beapplied are all keywords for all campaigns, and a subset of selectedkeywords from the advertisement campaigns.

Accordingly, any one rule associated with an advertising campaign entitycan further be associated with all campaign entities subordinate to theadvertising campaign entity (e.g., targeting entities such as keywords).Likewise, the condition for the rule can also be defined for a campaignmanagement entity subordinate to the advertising campaign entity (e.g.,the targeting entities that are subordinate to the advertising campaignentity).

In some implementations, the user interface 300 is a default userinterface for one of several default rules that are available to alladvertisers. Other default rules at the keyword level include, forexample, changing the max CPC bid, and pausing particular keywords. Forexample, the contextual submenu 214 of FIG. 2 includes a respective menuitem for each of the user interfaces. Conditions necessary for definingevents for the execution of particular operations to change the max CPCbid of keywords, and pausing particular keywords, can be defined byusers in the respective user interfaces.

FIG. 4 is an example user interface 400 for ad group rules at an adgroup level. The user interface 400 can, for example, be accessedthrough an automation menu, or through another user interface elementthat can be used to invoke a rule creation interface. The user interface400 is being used to create a rule titled “Raise bids to first pageCPC.” The user interface environment is similar to the user interface300 of FIG. 3. The rule being defined by the user interface 400 resultsin a 50% increase in the maximum cost per click for an advertisementgroup if two conditions are met. The first condition is that theadvertisement group is a low performing advertisement group (e.g., withthe click through rate less than 1%), and the second condition is thatthe budget for the advertisement group is not almost exhausted (e.g.,less than 90% of the daily budget has been spent).

Thus, the condition of the rule is a click through rate threshold forthe advertisement group defined by the advertisement group entitymeeting a first threshold. The operation of the rule is adjusting a biddefined by a bid entity associated with the advertisement group entityso that the bid meets a cost per click value that increases thelikelihood that an advertisement of the advertisement group isdisplayed.

The options available in the apply menu 402 can, in someimplementations, differ depending upon the particular campaign entitylevel from which a user invoked the user interface 400. As shown in FIG.4, the user interface 400 was invoked at an advertisement group level.Accordingly, the available options to which the rule may be applied toare selected advertisement group, all advertisement groups in a selectedcampaign, and all advertisement groups in all campaigns. In someimplementations, if the user interface were invoked at a campaign level,then the available options to which the rule may be applied are selectedadvertisement groups, or all advertisement groups in a particularcampaign. Likewise, if the user interface were invoked from an allcampaigns level, then the available options to which the rule may beapplied are selected advertisement groups, all advertisement groups, andall campaigns.

In some implementations, the user interface 400 is a default userinterface for one of several default rules that are available to alladvertisers. Other default rules at the advertising group level include,for example, pausing an advertisement group. For example, the contextualsubmenu 216 of FIG. 2 includes a respective menu item for each of theuser interfaces. Conditions necessary for defining events for theexecution of the particular operations associated with the advertisinggroups can be defined by users in the respective user interfaces.

FIG. 5 is an example user interface for campaign rules at an ad grouplevel. In FIG. 5, the campaign management entity is an advertisingcampaign entity, and the conditions of the rule are a click through ratethreshold for the campaign identified by the camping entity not meetinga first threshold and a traffic parameter (impressions) of the campaignnot meeting a second threshold. The operation, upon execution, resultsin a pausing of the campaign provided the event defined by theconditions occur to preclude the serving of advertisements associatedwith the campaign.

The options available in the apply menu 502 can, in someimplementations, differ depending upon the particular campaign entitylevel from which a user invoked the user interface 500. As shown in FIG.5, the user interface 500 was invoked at an advertisement group levelfor a selected campaign. Accordingly, the available options to which therule may be applied are currently selected campaign, and all campaigns.In some implementations, if the user interface were invoked at an allcampaigns level for advertising campaigns, then the available optionsare selected campaigns and all campaigns. Otherwise, the only availableoption to which the rule may be applied is all campaigns.

In some implementations, the user interface 500 is a default userinterface for one of several default rules that are available to alladvertisers. Other default rules at the advertising group level include,for example, changing a daily budget. For example, the contextualsubmenu 218 of FIG. 2 includes a respective menu item for each of theuser interfaces. Conditions necessary for defining events for theexecution of the particular operations associated with the advertisinggroups can be defined by users in the respective user interfaces.

Previewing Execution

FIGS. 6A-6B are illustrations of user interfaces 300 and 320 forpreviewing rules. The user interface 300 of FIG. 6A is similar to theuser interface 300 of FIG. 3, except that the preview rule button 314has been selected by user, as indicated by the “running preview” messagethat is displayed next to the preview rule button 314.

In some implementations, when a rule is first defined by a user, thescripting system 118 designates the rule as a candidate rule. Candidaterules are rules that have not been accepted for use in automatedmanagement of an advertising campaign. The scripting system 118 requiresthat candidate rules be previewed before they can be accepted by users.The scripting system 118 executes the rule in a preview context to allowusers to preview the effects of the operation on the campaign managemententities. When executed in a preview context, the changes to thecampaign management entities are not persisted to the campaign in 126.

The process flow from FIG. 6A to FIG. 6B is described with reference toFIG. 6C, which is a flow diagram of an example process 600 for executinga rule in a preview context.

In operation, the scripting system 118 accesses a candidate rule (602)and determines whether the candidate rule has been executed in a previewcontext (604). If the scripting system 118 determines that the candidaterule has not been executed in the preview context, then the scriptingsystem precludes acceptance of the candidate rule for use in anautomated management of the advertising campaign (608). For example,with respect to FIG. 3, the save button 316 is disabled because thescripting system 118 has determined that the candidate rule defined bythe parameters displayed in the user interface 300 has not been executedin the preview context.

Assume that a user has decided that the conditions 306 are sufficientfor the rule and the user wants to accept the rule. The user selects thepreview rule button 314 to execute the rule in the preview context.After execution in the preview context, the scripting system 118 allowsfor acceptance of the candidate rule for use in automated management ofthe advertising campaign. For example, as shown in FIG. 6B, the userinterface 320 includes preview results 322 that display the resultingcandidate entity changes for the affected campaign entities. If the useris satisfied with the preview results 322, the user will press the savebutton 316 and the candidate rule will be saved as a scripted rule 130.Conversely, if the user is dissatisfied, the user may change theparameters associated with the operation or the conditions and previewthe candidate rule again.

Often it is not necessary to execute the operation on all affectedcampaign entities when previewing a candidate rule. Furthermore, it islikely that the user will be able to determine whether the rule isacceptable after reviewing only a subset of affected campaign entities.Accordingly, in some implementations only a proper subset of campaignmanagement entities for which an entity change is specified by operationis selected in the preview context. For example, in someimplementations, up to a maximum number M campaign entities are selectedby the scripting system 118, and the operation of the candidate rule isperformed only on the selected campaign entities.

In other implementations, the scripting system 118 determines whetherexecution of the candidate rule would exceed a preview threshold (610).The preview threshold can be a maximum number of campaign managemententities, or be a maximum processing time. In the case of the former,the scripting system 118 determines whether a number of campaignmanagement entities for which an entity change is specified exceed themaximum number. If so, the scripting system 118 selects the propersubset of up to the maximum number of campaign management entities(614), performs the operation on the selected campaign entities (616),and displays the resulting changes for the proper subset of campaignmanagement entities (618). In the case of the latter, scripting system118 selects a number of campaign management entities for which theentity change is specified (614) and for which the processing timerequired to process the changes of the campaign management entities isless than the maximum processing time. The scripting system 118 performsthe operation on the selected campaign entities (616) and displays theresulting changes for the proper subset of the campaign managemententities (618).

Conversely, if the execution of the candidate rule would not exceed thepreview threshold, the scripting system 188 executes the operation onthe campaign management entities for which the entity change isspecified (612), and displays the resulting changes (618).

FIGS. 7A-7B are illustrations of user interfaces 710 and 730 forexecuting rules on demand. Once a rule has been accepted and persistedto the scripted rule status store 130, becomes available in automationmenus. For example, in the automation menu 710, selection of the runexisting rules submenu 712 causes the display to contextual menu 720.

The contextual menu 720 includes two submenus 722 and 724, eachcorresponding to one of two existing rules. The automation menu 710 isinvoked from a user interface that is at a campaign level thatcorresponds to the campaign management entities to which the rules ofthe submenus 722 and 724 are associated, e.g., the automation menu 710may have been invoked, for example, from the user interface 200 afterthe rules were created and saved. Conversely, if the user interface wasat the campaign level and corresponded to ad groups, then the automationmenu would of the type of automation menu 230 in FIG. 2B, and thesubmenus 722 and 724 would not be displayed, and keyword rules are notdisplayed in the automation menu 230. Thus, the saved rules will beavailable in the application menu for user interfaces that correspond tocampaign entities and levels to which the rule is to be applied asspecified by the apply menu 302. Accordingly, by creating multiple rulesand associating each with different campaign entities and levels, thescripting system 118 creates a context-based rule applicationenvironment.

Each of the submenus 722 and 724 display the rule title, the frequencyat which the rule is to be executed, and the corresponding conditionsassociated with the rule. If, however, the rule is selected using therun existing rule submenu 720, then the rule is executed independent ofthe frequency parameter associated with the rule.

In some implementations, when a rule is selected for execution, it isautomatically executed and the resulting candidate entity changes arepersisted to the campaign data store 126. In other implementations, therule must be previewed when it manually selected before the changes arepersisted to the campaign data store 126. For example, as shown in FIG.7B, the resulting user interface 730 is generated in response toselection of the submenu 722.

The user interface 730 displays various parameter 732 that are definedby the rule, and preview results 750 that display the resultingcandidate entity changes for the affected campaign entities. Severaloptions are available to the user after the preview results 750 aredisplayed. In particular, the user may select an edit rule button 752, arun button 754, or cancel button 756. The edit rule button 752 generatesa user interface as previously described with respect to FIGS. 3-5 inwhich the user may edit the various parameters of the rule. For example,if the user is not satisfied with the results of the preview, the userhas the option of editing the rule.

Selection of the run button 754 causes the scripting system to executethe rule and perform the operation on all affected campaign entities,and persists the changes to the campaign management entities in thecampaign data store 126. Selection of the cancel button 756 cancels theoperation.

User Authorization

FIGS. 8A and 8B are illustrations of permission dialogs 802. In someimplementations, the scripting system 118 associates each rule with theuser identifier that identifies the user to define the rule. When therule is executed, changes to campaign entities according to thespecified entity change of the rule are attributed to the useridentifier. Furthermore, by associating rules with user identifiers, thescripting system 118 can be required to be granted access to makechanges to the advertising campaign automatically.

In operation, the scripting system 118 determines a permission statusassociated with the user identifier. The permission status is indicativeof whether a user identified by the user identifier has permission toperform the operation of the rule. The scripting system 118 allowsexecution of the operation only if the permission status associated withthe user identifier indicates that the user identified by the useridentifier has permission to perform the operation of the rule.

The permission dialog 802 is generated first time a user attempts todefine a rule. Provided the user grants access to the scripting system118, and provided the user is authorized to make changes to anadvertising campaign, the grant access button 804 is enabled. Selectingthe grant access button 804 allows the user to proceed with defining arule and performing the subsequent operations described above.

At a later time, the user's access privileges for automated rules may berevoked. In the event of this happening, the dialogue 806 is generated.The dialogue 806 informs the user that the automated rules are notauthorized to run in the user's account.

Customized Operations For Rules

The rule creation user interface examples of FIGS. 3-5 above eachincluded predefined operations 304, 404 and 504 for which the user coulddefine variable values. These predefined operations define a set ofdefault rules that are available to all advertiser users. However, insome implementations, the scripting system 118 provides a template userinterface that facilitates the defining of a rule template that can beused to generate rules for customized operations. FIGS. 9A-9E areillustrations of user interfaces for developing customized rules for acampaign.

FIGS. 9A-9E are illustrations of user interfaces for developingcustomized rules for a campaign. In FIG. 9A, the user interface 900displays an actions listing 902. The actions listing 902 listsoperations for various rules. Within the actions listing 902 is a createcustom actions button 904. Selection of the create custom actions button904 causes a client device to request a resource from the scriptingsystem 118 to display the template user interface 910 of FIG. 9B.

The template user interface 910 is used to generate a rule template thatcan be used to generate a rule that defines an operation and acorresponding event. The template user interface 910 includes inputfields 912 in which a user may enter information, e.g., a name and adescription for a custom operation for a rule.

The template user interface 910 also includes an entity selection menu914 from which a campaign management entity can be selected from amongdifferent campaign entities of advertising campaign data. The examplecampaign entities shown in the entity selection menu 914 include anadvertising campaign entity, an advertisement group entity, anadvertisement entity, and a targeting entity.

In response to receiving a selection of a campaign management entity,the custom operation is associated with the selected campaign entity sothat the entity change affects the corresponding campaign entities. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 9B, the targeting campaign entity for keywordsis selected, which results in the operation that is being define by useof the template user interface 910 being associated with keywords andoperating on keyword campaign entities.

The template user interface 910 also includes variable declarationinputs 916 from which a variable type from different variable types canbe specified. In some implementations, each variable corresponds to aselected campaign entity so that the available variables are dependenton the selected campaign entity. For example, if a targeting entity isselected (e.g., a keyword), the variables may be limited to a clickthrough rate. In other implementations, the variables are independent ofa selected campaign entity. For example, for the selected targetingentity, and variable can be selected (e.g., click through rate,percentage of daily budget exhausted, etc.) can be selected. Multiplevariables can be selected by the user by use of the “+ Add anothervariable” link option.

Template user interface 910 also includes a script editing environment918 in which a script can be edited by a user. The script defines thecustomized operation and operates on corresponding campaign entitiesthat correspond to the variables.

In some implementations, in response to receiving a selection of thevariable type, a variable declaration is generated in the script in theenvironment 918. For example, as shown in FIG. 9B, the variable “lowerbid by %” has been generated in the variable declaration menu 916. Inresponse, the variable declaration 920 is automatically generated in thescript editing environment 918. In variations of this implementation,the user may specify the name of the variable by typing in the variablename in a text input field in the variable declaration menu 916, and thevariable is named in accordance with the input. For example, the userhas typed in the variable description “Lower bid by (%)”, and inresponse to corresponding variable name “lower bid by %” isautomatically generated.

FIG. 9C shows the template user interface 910 after the user hasselected two variables by use of the variable declaration menu 916, andwritten a corresponding script for the customized operation. Inparticular, two variables—lower_bid by_% and min_bid_$—are declared inthe variable declaration menu 916, and corresponding variabledeclarations 920 and 922 are generated in the script editing environment918. In addition, the user has written additional script instructions924. The example script instructions 924 include two instructions 926that associate the operation with a particular advertising campaignentity and a particular ad group entity. Together the scriptinstructions 924 and variable declarations 920 and 922 define a scriptfor the custom operation.

After the user has completed the script, scripting system 118 stores thescript defining the operations on the variables corresponding to theselected campaign entity as a rule template. The rule template may thenbe invoked to generate a rule in a manner similar to the way ruletemplates are invoked to generate rules as described with respect toFIGS. 3-5. For example, with respect to FIG. 9D, the user has invokedthe user interface environment 930, which corresponds to keywords forthe ad group and advertising campaign associated by the instructions 926shown in FIG. 9C. Accordingly, the automation menu 932, once activated,in addition to menu selections for default rules, includes a menuselection 934 that corresponds to the customized operation that the userdefined using the template user interface 910 and associated with thespecified campaign entities.

Selection of the rule template causes the user interface 930 to generatea rule creation user interface 940 of FIG. 9E. An apply menu 944 is usedto select campaign entities to which the rule will be associated. Asshown in FIG. 9E, the rule is currently selected to be applied to allkeywords in the selected advertisement group. An alternative applicationselection could be, for example, a subset of keywords within anadvertisement group.

The rule has a corresponding operation menu 946 for an operation that,when executed, results in a lowering of a bid by a percentage, with anoptional minimum bid. For each variable declaration in the script, acorresponding input field for receiving a value for a variablecorresponding to the variable declaration is provided in the operationmenu 946. Because the user defined both of these as variable inputs whencreating the customized operation, the user can select the value foreach declared variable by entering the values in the operation menu 946.

Also associated with the rule are conditions that define the event thatwill result in execution of the operation. The conditions are defined byrequirements 948 that can be selected by the user.

The user interface 300 also includes a preview rule button 952, and asave button 954. The save button is initially disabled, indicating thatthe rule has not yet been previewed.

In most other respects, a rule generated by use of the rule creationuser interface 940 is subject to the same requirements and operations asdescribed with respect to the rules generated by the interfaces of FIGS.3-5 above.

Script Batching

The scripting engine 118, in some implementations, may have timing andresource limitations that are imposed for each execution of a rule. Forexample, the system 118 may have a total rule execution time limit of nhours (e.g., n=1, 2, 3 hours, etc.); and each instance of an executionof a script may have a different time limit, e.g., of m minutes. Otherresource constraints may also be imposed.

Thus, in some implementations, the script system 118 partitions campaignentities into subsets, and instantiates, for each subset, a separateexecution fragment in which the operation is executed on only the subsetto change the campaign management entities that belong to the subsetaccording to the specified campaign entity change. The size of eachsubset is selected so that the execution of each subset complies withthe constraints imposed on each script execution, and the execution ofall subsets complies with constraints imposed for each execution of arule.

FIG. 10A is a block diagram of example system 1000 for partitioning theexecution of a script into batches. Operation of the example system 1000is described with reference to FIG. 10B, which is a flow diagram of anexample process 1020 for partitioning the execution of a script intobatches.

When the script system 118 detects an event for a rule (1022), thescript system 118 invokes the script batching engine 1002 to determinewhether the campaign management entities affected by the operation ofthe rule should be partitioned into subsets. In some implementations,the script batching engine 1002 determines whether a processing metricexceeds a threshold (1024). If the processing metric does not exceed thethreshold, the script engine 118 executes the rule (1026) withoutfragmenting.

There are varieties of ways in which the script batching engine 1002 candetermine whether a processing metric exceeds a threshold. For example,the script batching engine 1002 may determine whether a number ofcampaign management entities for which an entity change is specifiedexceeds a maximum number. In some implementations, each of the campaignmanagement entities has a corresponding maximum number based on itsrespective entity type, and the script batching engine 1002 determineswhether the number of campaign management entities for which an entitychange is specified exceeds the corresponding maximum number of therespective entity type of campaign management entities. To illustrate,assume that a maximum number of entities in a fragment must not exceedX, and a different value of X is picked for each entity type (campaigns,ad groups, keywords, etc.). Accordingly, no more than 5000 keywordcampaign entities can be handled by any particular execution fragment;no more than 500 ad group campaign entities can be handled by anyparticular execution fragment; and so on.

By way of another example, the script batching engine 1002 can determinewhether a processing time required to process the changes of thecampaign management entities exceeds a maximum processing time. Thescript batching engine 1002 can partition the campaign managemententities into subsets so that, for each of the subsets, a respectiveprocessing time required to process the changes of the campaignmanagement entities is less than the maximum processing time. The numberof campaign management entities for each fragment may depend on observedperformance of previously executed fragments.

If the script batching engine 1002 determines that the processing metricdoes exceed the threshold, then the script batching engine partitionsthe campaign management entities into subsets (1028), and theninstantiates a separate execution fragment for each subset (1030). Forexample, the script batching engine 1002 can partition the campaignmanagement entities into subsets that each have a cardinality that isless than the respective maximum number associated with the campaignmanagement entity, or can partition the campaign management entities sothat the execution of any one fragment does not exceed a maximumprocessing time.

In some implementations, the script batching engine 1002 instantiatesexecution fragments for subsets of campaign management entities that aresubordinate to a same campaign entity in a hierarchy in serial, andinstantiates execution fragments for subsets of campaign managemententities that respectively subordinate to different campaign entity inparallel. For example, subsets of entities belonging to different adgroups may be processed in parallel, while subsets of entities belongingto the same ad group may only be processed in serial.

In some implementations, the script batching engine 1002 partitions thecampaign management entities into subsets of campaign managemententities that are subordinate to different campaign entities in thehierarchy so that, for each subset, a number of different campaignentities to which the campaign management entities that belong to thesubset are subordinate is less than a maximum threshold. For example,the script batching engine 1002 may be required to ensure that the totalnumber of ad groups to which the entities in a fragment belong must notexceed a maximum value Y. To illustrate, assume Y is 1,000. Thus,sending 5,000 keywords that belong to the same ad group to one executionfragment group is acceptable, but sending 5,000 keywords that belong to2,000 different ad groups is not acceptable. Accordingly, in the lattercase, the script batching engine will partition the keywords into, forexample, 2,000 keywords within 1,000 ad groups and 3,000 keywords withinthe other 1,000 ad groups.

In some implementations, the script batching engine 1002 determines, foreach separate execution fragment, an error status for the executionfragment that indicates whether the execution fragment executed withouterror, and persists changes for only execution fragments having an errorstatus indicating the execution fragment executed without error. Forexample, if a change to a particular campaign entity in a particularexecution fragment fails, then the entire update for the executionfragment fails. In some implementations, the script batching engine1002, in response to detecting one or more change failures in responseto execution of a fragment, removes the campaign management entities forwhich the changes failed from the subset and re-executes the executionfragment 1010 on the modified subset. Provided there are no failures,the changes are persisted to the campaign data.

Interoperability with External Application Services

In addition to rules being triggered by events that are observed by anadvertising service that is used to manage advertising campaign, rulescan be trigger by events associated with other application services thatare external to the advertising service. This allows advertisers tomanage their advertising campaigns from a variety of differentapplication services, and have reports published in varying format fordifferent application services. For example, cloud-based applicationservices, such as spreadsheet service applications, database serviceapplications, calendar service applications, and the like can be used inconjunction with the scripting system 118 for managing onlineadvertising campaigns. The application services their respectiveapplications to users and are hosted in a network external to clientdevices of the users, e.g., hosted on servers in a network that isseparate from the network(s) in which the client devices are connected.

FIG. 11A is a block diagram of example 1100 system for monitoringservices that are external to the advertising service for events definedby rules. Operation of the example system 1100 is described withreference to FIG. 11B, which is a flow diagram of an example process1120 for monitoring services that are external to the advertisingservice for events defined by rule. In operation, the scripting system118, using an event broker 1102, accesses advertising campaign data thatincludes campaign entities and rules (1122). The system 1100 thenmonitors advertising service and each of a plurality of applicationservices that are external to the advertising service for events definedby the rules (1124).

For example, one application provided by an application service 1110 isconfigured to modify data describing campaign entities associated withan advertising campaign entity. An example of such an application is aspreadsheet. An event defined by the rule is the occurrence ofmodifications of the data describing campaign entities by theapplication. Accordingly, the operation defined by the rule specifiesreceiving the modifications of the data describing the campaignmanagement entities from the application service and changing thecampaign management entities in the advertising campaign data 126according to the modifications of the data describing the campaignmanagement entities. Thus, for example, the event change may be a changein data describing keyword bids in the spread sheet application, and thechanges in the campaign management entities is a persisting of thechanges in keyword bids to the campaign data 126.

By way of another example, at least one application provided by anapplication service is a scheduling application that specifies a ruleschedule of when particular rules are to be executed, and the eventdefined by the rule is the scheduled execution of the rule as specifiedby the rule schedule.

The event for each rule can take into account performance metrics fromadvertising campaigns, and conditions for particular applicationservices. For example, a particular rule to increase a CPC bid for lowperforming advertising groups may be scheduled to run on a weekly basis.However, rule may also run if a user of a calendar application servicehaving a user identifier that matches the user identifier associatedwith the rule uses a calendar appointment to schedule the rule to run ata time different from the weekly basis. When the rule runs according thecalendar schedule of the user, the changes to the campaign managemententities are attributed to the user.

In addition to triggering events based on information provided by othercloud based application services that are external to the advertisingservice provided by the advertisement management system 102, thescripting system 118 can also publish results to other services. Forexample, an operation of a rule may specify an entity change forcampaign entities associated with an advertising campaign entity, andother parameters of the rule may define generating and providingreporting data describing the entity change for a spreadsheetapplication provided by an application service. Such reporting data candescribe the change in targeting keywords, the change in bids, thechange in ad group advertisements, etc.

Conversion of Flat API to Hierarchical API

In some implementations, the advertising campaign data conforms to aflat Application Programming Interface (API), and thus the campaignmanagement entities are not called in a hierarchical manner. However,the scripting system 118 presents the campaign management entities in ahierarchal manner by means of a hierarchal data-model API to accesscampaign entities. Accordingly, the scripting system 118 is configuredto convert, during execution of a rule, each hierarchical data-model APIcall for campaign entities specified in a rule to a flat API call forthe campaign management entities. The flat API uses objects for data andservices for data access. The hierarchical data-model API, on the otherhand, uses objects for both data and data access. For example, assumethat the keyword “pink roses” from the ad group “flowers” for thecampaign “valentine” is required. The following series of flat API callswould be required to access the data in the campaign data 126:

Campaign = CampaignService.getCampaign(“name=valentine”) AdGroup =AdGroupService.getAdGroup(“name=flowers, CampaignId=Campaign.ID”)Keyword = KeywordService.getKeyword(“text=pink roses,AdGroupId=AdGroup.ID”)

Each of the calls above calls a service stub for data access and uses anobject for the data. Additionally, each subsequent call for the ad groupand keyword respectively passes the parameters of the identifier of thecampaign “valentine” and ad group “flowers.”

The scripting system 118, however, can use the following instructionsaccording to the hierarchical data-model API:

Campaign = AdWords.getCampaign(“name=valentine”) AdGroup =Campaign.getAdGroup(“name=flowers”) Keyword =AdGroup.getKeyword(“text=pink roses”)

Instead of requiring the user to call a service stub and pass thenecessary identifiers that are inherently absent in the flat API, thescripting system 118 allows users to write instructions that conform toan object hierarchy that is used to model the advertising campaign. Thescripting system 118 automatically converts the each hierarchicaldata-model API call for campaign entities specified in a rule to a flatAPI call for the campaign management entities.

FIG. 12A is a flow diagram of an example process 1200 for accessingcampaign data using a flat Application Programming Interface (API). Theprocess 1200 can be implemented by the scripting system 118.

The scripting system 118 accesses rules, each rule associated with atleast one of the advertising campaign entities (1202). The scriptingsystem 118 converts, during execution of a rule, each hierarchicaldata-model API call for campaign entities specified in a rule to a flatAPI call for the campaign management entities (1204). Thereafter, thescripting system 118 accesses advertising campaign data using the flatAPI call (1206).

Each hierarchical data-model API call is a call that uses a first dataobject to specify a first campaign entity for a function of thedata-model API call, and a second data object corresponding to a secondcampaign entity that is subordinate to the first campaign entity is usedas an argument of the hierarchical data-model API. Conversely, each flatAPI call is a call that uses a service request and a data object toaccess campaign entities.

An example way of converting a hierarchical data-model API call forcampaign entities specified in a rule to a flat API call for thecampaign management entities is described with reference to FIG. 12B.The scripting system 118 determines, from at least one data-model APIcall specified in the rule, a corresponding service request and a dataobject for use in a flat API call (1222). For example, for the datamodel API call:

Campaign=AdWords.getCampaign(“name=valentine”)

the scripting service 118 determines that the “AdWords” object and thegetCampaign( ) access request corresponds to the service request“CampaignService,” and that the data object is “valentine.” Thecorrespondence of a service request and object can, for example, bepredefined. Likewise, for the data model API call:

AdGroup=Campaign.getAdGroup(“name=flowers”)

the scripting service 118 determines that the “Campaign” object and thegetAdGroup( ) access request corresponds to the service request“AdGroupService,” and that the data object is “flowers.”

The scripting service generates the flat API call using the service calland the data object determined from the at least one data-model API call(1224). For example, for the data model API call:

Campaign=AdWords.getCampaign(“name=valentine”)

the scripting service 118 generates the flat API call:

Campaign=CampaignService.getCampaign(“name=valentine”).

Likewise, the for the data model API call:

AdGroup=Campaign.getAdGroup(“name=flowers”)

the scripting service 118 generates the flat API call:

AdGroup=AdGroupService.getAdGroup(“name=flowers,CampaignId=Campaign.ID”).

In general, converting each hierarchical data-model API call forcampaign entities specified in the rules to a flat API call for thecampaign management entities includes determining a correspondingservice request based on the second data object, and generating the flatAPI call using the service request that uses the second data object andthe first data object as arguments.

Reversion of Operation Changes

In some implementations, the scripting system 118 allows a user toconfigure a rule to temporarily modify campaign management entitiesuntil the occurrence of a reversion event. When the reversion eventoccurs, the values of the modified campaign entities are reverted totheir original value. The reversion event can be a period of time, orsome other condition specified by a user. For example, a user can definea rule to turn on campaigns for “Cyber Monday” in the morning of CyberMonday and turn the campaigns off in the evening of Cyber Monday; ordefine a rule to increase budgets for a holiday season and revert thebudgets back to their original levels after the holiday season; ordefine a rule to change bids for some keywords during the weekend andreverts the bids back on Monday.

The reversion event can also be a different condition defined by theuser. For example, a user can define a rule to change bids for somekeywords until N impressions (e.g., N=1,000) are served for thosekeywords. Additionally, the reversion can also be a manual input by theuser, e.g., a user may, at any time after a rule has been executed,invoke a reversion command to revert the operation of the rule.

FIG. 13A is a block diagram of an example system 1300 for reverting anoperation performed by a rule. The system 1300 includes the scriptingsystem 118 and a reversion engine 1302 that handles reversions ofoperations that are executed for rules. Operation of the example system1300 is described with reference to FIG. 13B, which is a flow diagram ofan example process 1320 for reverting an operation performed by a rule.

In operation, the system 118 detects a first event for a rule andexecutes the rule operation (1322). The detection of an event and theexecution of the operation are as described above.

For each campaign management entity changed by the operation, thereversion engine 1302 stores a first value for the campaign managemententity in the change log 1304 (1324). The first value is the value ofthe campaign management entity before being changed by the operation.For example, if a bid for targeting entity is changed from $0.50 to$0.75 as a result of a rule operation, the first value that is stored is$0.50. The first value is associated with its corresponding instance ofthe campaign entity, and is also associated with an execution identifierthat identifies the instance of the execution of the rule. As many rulesmay be executed at different times, the execution identifier allows thereversion engine 1302 identify the particular changes that areattributed to a particular execution of a particular rule.

After the execution of the rule, the scripting system 118 detects areversion event for the rule (1326). As described above, the reversionevent can be time based, or based on some other condition, or evenmanually caused by the user.

In response to the detection of the reversion event, the reversionengine 1302 retrieves the first values for campaign management entitiesthat were changed by the operation of the rule from the change log(1328), and then changes the values of the campaign management entitiesback to their respective first values (1330).

In some implementations, all of the campaign management entities thatwere changed by a rule operation revert to their respective firstvalues. In other implementations, however, some of the campaignmanagement entities that were change may not be changed back to theirrespective first values. For example, subsequent to the execution of therule and before the occurrence of the reversion event, another rule thatresulted in changes to some of the entities changed by the first rulemay have been executed. Accordingly, it may not be desirable to revertto the first value, as the reversion of the first rule would effectivelyrevert the operation of the second rule. Similarly, subsequent to theexecution of the rule and before the occurrence of the reversion event,the user may have manually changed the values of some of the entities,and it may not be desirable to revert to the first value, as thereversion of the first rule would effectively overwrite the changes theuser specified.

In general, the value of a particular campaign entity may only revert inresponse to a reversion event if the value has not changed since theexecution of the rule that is being reverted. There are several ways inwhich the reversion engine 1302 can determine whether a particularcampaign entity that has been changed by a rule operation should bereverted. For example, during the execution of the rule, the reversionengine 1302 stores a second value for the campaign management entity inthe change log 1304. The second value is the value of the campaignmanagement entity as changed by the operation. Thus, the change log 1304now stores, for each changed entity, the value of the entity before thechange and the value of the entity after the change. When a reversionevent for the rule is detected, the reversion engine 1302 determines,for each of the second values for campaign management entities stored inthe change log, whether the second value for the campaign managemententity matches a current value of the campaign management entity. Ifthere is a match, then it is highly likely that the value has notchanged (i.e., it is unlikely that a subsequent changes resulted in thesame second value). Accordingly, the reversion engine 1302 changes thevalue of the campaign management entity to its corresponding first valuestored in the change log. However, if the second value of the campaignmanagement entity does not match the current value of the campaignmanagement entity, then the reversion engine 1302 does not change thevalue of the entity.

In a variation of this implementation, the reversion engine 1302 storesa change flag value for each changed campaign entity relative to eachexecution identifier. After a rule is executed, the change flag for eachparticular campaign identifier and execution identifier is 0, indicatingthe value of the campaign entity has not been changed since theexecution of the rule. If the entity value is changed at a later timeand before a reversion event for the particular execution identifier,then the change flag associated with the particular execution identifierand entity is changed to 1, indicating the campaign entity has changedsince the execution of the rule.

Use of the change flag reduces the likelihood of a false negativedetection of a subsequent change. While such false negative detectionsare unlikely for specific variables that have a wide range of values(e.g., bids), false negative detections are more likely to occur forbinary variables (e.g., suspension/activation of a keyword) if thebinary variable are changed several times.

When a reversion event for a particular execution identifier is receive,the reversion engine 1302, for each of the campaign management entitieschanged by the operation associated with the execution identifier,evaluates the change flag for the entity and execution identifier anddetermines whether the campaign management entity was changed after thechange by the operation. Only if the change flag indicates that thecampaign management entity was not changed after the change by theoperation does the reversion engine 1302 change the value of thecampaign management entity to its corresponding first value stored inthe change log 1304.

Reversion events can be defined by the user by use of a rule userinterface. For example, a reversion event selection menu item can beadded to any of the user interfaces described above. In someimplementations, if a frequency parameter is selected, the scriptingsystem limits a time period of a reversion event to within the timeperiod defined by the frequency parameter. For example, if a rule is tobe executed weekly, the reversion event time period may be limited toone week or less.

Contextual Environments for Campaign Management

As described above, the user interfaces may be used to create rules fordifferent campaign entities at different campaign levels. For example,FIG. 14A is an illustration of a user interface 1400 for a campaignmanagement application. The user interface 1400 includes environmentselectors (tabs) 1402, 1404 and 1406 for the application. Each selectorcorresponds respective user interface environments that provide editingtools for particular data sets that respectively correspond to the userinterface environments. For example, for a selection of the tab 1406,which corresponds to keyword targeting entities, a user interfaceenvironment 1410 that is an editing environment for keyword entities isdisplayed. Selection of tabs 1402 and 1404 would cause the userinterface 1400 to transition to interface environments for advertisementgroup entities and advertisement entities, respectively.

From any particular interface environment, a user may select to generatea rule for any particular campaign entities. For example, in FIG. 14A,the user has selected the automate menu 1412 that causes the displayselection options 1414 that correspond operations on a first data type(e.g., the options for “Create rule for keywords”) and other data types(e.g., the options for “Create rules for ads” and “Create rules for adgroups”). The user may select from any of these options.

Often a user may decide to create a rule for a particular campaignentity from a user interface environment for that campaign entity. Forexample, FIG. 14B is an illustration of the user interface 1400 afterthe user has selected the “Enable keywords when . . . ” menu option. Theuser interface 1400 of FIG. 14B is the same as in FIG. 14A, except thatit now includes an operation user interface portion 1420 displayedwithin the user interface environment 1410. The operation user interfaceportion 1420, for example, is a user interface that can be used tocreate a rule to enable keywords.

However, a user may just as often decide to create a rule for aparticular campaign entity this does not correspond to the currentlyselected user interface environment. For example, in FIG. 14C, the userhas selected the selection option “Create rule for ads”, and theresulting contextual rule options “Pause ads when” and “Enable ads when”1415 are displayed. In response to the user selecting the “Pause adswhen” option, the user interface 1400 transitions to the display asillustrated in FIG. 14D. The user interface 1400 of FIG. 14D differsfrom the interface as depicted in FIG. 14A in several respects. First,an operation user interface portion 1440 that correspond to a userinterface for creating a rule pause advertisements is shown.Additionally, the user interface 1400 has transitioned to the userinterface environment 1430, which corresponds to advertisement entities.Additionally, the selection tab 1404 is now highlighted, which alsoindicates the transition from the keyword targeting entity userinterface 1410 to the advertisement entity user interface 1430.

Accordingly, invocation of rule operation in a first user interfaceenvironment can cause the user interface 1400 to automaticallytransition to another user interface environment if the first userinterface environment does not correspond to the rule operation. Thistransition facilitates an intuitive navigation from any interfaceenvironment to a rule generation environment with only a single command.As there are multiple combinations of environments and rules, theautomatic transition of an underlying environment that corresponds to aselected menu option saves time for the user.

While the contextual change of a user environment has been described inthe context of an advertisement management system applicationenvironment, the contextual change features described above can be usedin other applications of different types, as appropriate.

Additional Implementation Details

Embodiments of the subject matter and the operations described in thisspecification can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or incomputer software, firmware, or hardware, including the structuresdisclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents, or incombinations of one or more of them. Embodiments of the subject matterdescribed in this specification can be implemented as one or morecomputer programs, i.e., one or more modules of computer programinstructions, encoded on computer storage medium for execution by, or tocontrol the operation of, data processing apparatus. Alternatively or inaddition, the program instructions can be encoded on anartificially-generated propagated signal, e.g., a machine-generatedelectrical, optical, or electromagnetic signal, that is generated toencode information for transmission to suitable receiver apparatus forexecution by a data processing apparatus. A computer storage medium canbe, or be included in, a computer-readable storage device, acomputer-readable storage substrate, a random or serial access memoryarray or device, or a combination of one or more of them. Moreover,while a computer storage medium is not a propagated signal, a computerstorage medium can be a source or destination of computer programinstructions encoded in an artificially-generated propagated signal. Thecomputer storage medium can also be, or be included in, one or moreseparate physical components or media (e.g., multiple CDs, disks, orother storage devices).

The operations described in this specification can be implemented asoperations performed by a data processing apparatus on data stored onone or more computer-readable storage devices or received from othersources.

The term “data processing apparatus” encompasses all kinds of apparatus,devices, and machines for processing data, including by way of example aprogrammable processor, a computer, a system on a chip, or multipleones, or combinations, of the foregoing The apparatus can includespecial purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gatearray) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). Theapparatus can also include, in addition to hardware, code that createsan execution environment for the computer program in question, e.g.,code that constitutes processor firmware, a protocol stack, a databasemanagement system, an operating system, a cross-platform runtimeenvironment, a virtual machine, or a combination of one or more of them.The apparatus and execution environment can realize various differentcomputing model infrastructures, such as web services, distributedcomputing and grid computing infrastructures.

A computer program (also known as a program, software, softwareapplication, script, or code) can be written in any form of programminglanguage, including compiled or interpreted languages, declarative orprocedural languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as astand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, object, orother unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computerprogram may, but need not, correspond to a file in a file system. Aprogram can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programsor data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markup languagedocument), in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or inmultiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store one or more modules,sub-programs, or portions of code). A computer program can be deployedto be executed on one computer or on multiple computers that are locatedat one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by acommunication network.

The processes and logic flows described in this specification can beperformed by one or more programmable processors executing one or morecomputer programs to perform actions by operating on input data andgenerating output. The processes and logic flows can also be performedby, and apparatus can also be implemented as, special purpose logiccircuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC(application-specific integrated circuit).

Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, byway of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, andany one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, aprocessor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory ora random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer area processor for performing actions in accordance with instructions andone or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally,a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled to receive datafrom or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices forstoring data, e.g., magnetic, magneto-optical disks, or optical disks.However, a computer need not have such devices.

Devices suitable for storing computer program instructions and datainclude all forms of non-volatile memory, media and memory devices,including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM,EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal harddisks or removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROMdisks. The processor and the memory can be supplemented by, orincorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry.

To provide for interaction with a user, embodiments of the subjectmatter described in this specification can be implemented on a computerhaving a display device, e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquidcrystal display) monitor, for displaying information to the user and akeyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a trackball, by whichthe user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices canbe used to provide for interaction with a user as well; for example,feedback provided to the user can be any form of sensory feedback, e.g.,visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input fromthe user can be received in any form, including acoustic, speech, ortactile input. In addition, a computer can interact with a user bysending documents to and receiving documents from a device that is usedby the user; for example, by sending web pages to a web browser on auser's client device in response to requests received from the webbrowser.

Embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification can beimplemented in a computing system that includes a back-end component,e.g., as a data server, or that includes a middleware component, e.g.,an application server, or that includes a front-end component, e.g., aclient computer having a graphical user interface or a Web browserthrough which a user can interact with an implementation of the subjectmatter described in this specification, or any combination of one ormore such back-end, middleware, or front-end components. The componentsof the system can be interconnected by any form or medium of digitaldata communication, e.g., a communication network. Examples ofcommunication networks include a local area network (“LAN”) and a widearea network (“WAN”), an inter-network (e.g., the Internet), andpeer-to-peer networks (e.g., ad hoc peer-to-peer networks).

The computing system can include clients and servers. A client andserver are generally remote from each other and typically interactthrough a communication network. The relationship of client and serverarises by virtue of computer programs running on the respectivecomputers and having a client-server relationship to each other. In someembodiments, a server transmits data (e.g., an HTML page) to a clientdevice (e.g., for purposes of displaying data to and receiving userinput from a user interacting with the client device). Data generated atthe client device (e.g., a result of the user interaction) can bereceived from the client device at the server.

An example of computing system in which the above-described techniquescan be implemented is shown in FIG. 14, which shows a block diagram of adata processing apparatus system. The system 2000 can be utilized toimplement the systems and methods described herein. The architecture ofthe system 2000 can, for example, be used to implement a computerclient, a computer server, or some other computer device.

The system 2000 includes a processor 2010, a memory 2020, a storagedevice 2030, and an input/output device 2040. Each of the components2010, 2020, 2030, and 2040 can, for example, be interconnected using asystem bus 2050. The processor 2010 is capable of processinginstructions for execution within the system 2000. In oneimplementation, the processor 2010 is a single-threaded processor. Inanother implementation, the processor 2010 is a multi-threadedprocessor. The processor 2010 is capable of processing instructionsstored in the memory 2020 or on the storage device 2030.

The memory 2020 stores information within the system 2000. In oneimplementation, the memory 2020 is a computer-readable medium. In oneimplementation, the memory 2020 is a volatile memory unit. In anotherimplementation, the memory 2020 is a non-volatile memory unit.

The storage device 2030 is capable of providing mass storage for thesystem 2000. In one implementation, the storage device 2030 is acomputer-readable medium. In various different implementations, thestorage device 2030 can, for example, include a hard disk device, anoptical disk device, or some other large capacity storage device.

The input/output device 2040 provides input/output operations for thesystem 2000. In one implementation, the input/output device 2040 caninclude one or more of a network interface device, e.g., an Ethernetcard, a serial communication device, e.g., and RS-232 port, and/or awireless interface device, e.g., an 802.11 card. In anotherimplementation, the input/output device can include driver devicesconfigured to receive input data and send output data to otherinput/output devices, e.g., keyboard, printer and display devices 2060.

While this specification contains many specific implementation details,these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of anyinventions or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions offeatures specific to particular embodiments of particular inventions.Certain features that are described in this specification in the contextof separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in asingle embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described inthe context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multipleembodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover,although features may be described above as acting in certaincombinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more featuresfrom a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from thecombination, and the claimed combination may be directed to asubcombination or variation of a subcombination.

Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particularorder, this should not be understood as requiring that such operationsbe performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, orthat all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirableresults. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processingmay be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various systemcomponents in the embodiments described above should not be understoodas requiring such separation in all embodiments, and it should beunderstood that the described program components and systems cangenerally be integrated together in a single software product orpackaged into multiple software products.

Thus, particular embodiments of the subject matter have been described.Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. In somecases, the actions recited in the claims can be performed in a differentorder and still achieve desirable results. In addition, the processesdepicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require theparticular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirableresults. In certain implementations, multitasking and parallelprocessing may be advantageous.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a data processing apparatusincluding one or more computers; a data store storing advertisingcampaign data used by an advertising service, the advertising campaigndata including a plurality of campaign management entities including anadvertising campaign entity that defines an advertising campaign; and acomputer storage system storing instructions that when executed by thedata processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to performactions comprising: updating a user interface of a client device topresent user interface controls that enable a user to define anoperation and a condition for a candidate rule associated with theadvertising campaign entity, wherein: the condition specifies a campaignperformance metric for the advertising campaign and a respectivethreshold for the campaign performance metric; and the operation (i) isexecuted in response to detecting that the campaign performance metricspecified by the condition meets the respective threshold for thecampaign performance metric and (ii) specifies a change to a particulardistribution criterion for each of a set of campaign management entitiesassociated with the advertising campaign entity when the campaignperformance metric specified by the condition meets the respectivethreshold for the campaign performance metric; identifying, based on amaximum processing time in which the candidate rule can be executed in apreview context that presents a preview of changes to the set ofcampaign management entities based on execution of the candidate rule, asubset of the set of campaign management entities on which the operationcan be executed within the maximum processing time, the subset ofcampaign management entities including more than one campaign managemententity but fewer than all of the campaign management entities of the setof campaign management entities; executing, within the maximumprocessing time, the candidate rule within the preview context,including executing the operation on each campaign management entity inthe subset of campaign management entities without executing theoperation on any campaign management entity that is not in the subset ofcampaign management entities; modifying the user interface to visuallypresent a first preview that lists only those campaign managemententities in the subset, and for only those campaign management entitiesin the subset, (i) a current value of the particular distributioncriterion for the campaign management entity and (ii) a new value thatwill be assigned to the particular distribution criterion for thecampaign management entity when the operation of the candidate rule isexecuted; enabling, after modifying the user interface to present thefirst preview, a user interface control that allows a user to activatethe candidate rule; detecting, after modifying the user interface topresent the first preview, user interaction with the user interfacecontrol; and in response to detecting the user interaction with the userinterface control: activating the candidate rule for use in an automatedmanagement of the advertising campaign.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein the instructions cause the data processing apparatus to performoperations comprising: determining whether execution of the operation ofthe candidate rule on all of the campaign management entities wouldexceed the maximum processing time; in response to determining thatexecution of the operation of the candidate rule on all of the campaignmanagement entities in the set of campaign management entities wouldexceed the maximum processing time: selecting the proper subset of thesubset of campaign management entities.
 3. The system of claim 2,wherein the instructions cause the data processing apparatus to performoperations comprising: in response to determining that execution of theoperation of the candidate rule on all of the campaign managemententities in the set of campaign management entities would not exceed thepreview threshold: executing the operation of the candidate rule on eachcampaign management entity in the set of campaign management entities,wherein the first preview lists the current value and the new value foreach campaign management entity in the set campaign management entities.4. (canceled)
 5. The system of claim 2, wherein: selecting a propersubset of the campaign management entities comprises selecting a numberof campaign management entities for which a processing time required toprocess the changes of the particular distribution criterion for thecampaign management entities in the subset of campaign managemententities is less than the maximum processing time.
 6. The system ofclaim 2, wherein selecting a proper subset of the campaign managemententities comprises selecting campaign entities according to an orderedsequence.
 7. The system of claim 2, wherein selecting a proper subset ofthe campaign management entities comprises selecting campaign entitiesaccording to a random sequence.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein theinstructions cause the data processing apparatus to perform operationscomprising: selecting, for inclusion in the proper subset of campaignmanagement entities, up to a maximum of N campaign management entitiesfrom the set of campaign management entities.
 9. Software stored in anon-transitory computer storage system, the software comprisinginstructions that when executed by a data processing apparatus cause thedata processing apparatus to perform actions comprising: accessing adata store storing advertising campaign data used by an advertisingservice, the advertising campaign data including a plurality of campaignmanagement entities including an advertising campaign entity thatdefines an advertising campaign; updating a user interface of a clientdevice to present user interface controls that enable a user to definean operation and a condition for a candidate rule associated with theadvertising campaign entity, wherein: the condition specifies a campaignperformance metric for the advertising campaign and a respectivethreshold for the campaign performance metric; and the operation (i) isexecuted in response to detecting that the campaign performance metricspecified by the condition meets the respective threshold for thecampaign performance metric and (ii) specifies a change to a particulardistribution criterion for each of a set of campaign management entitiesassociated with the advertising campaign entity when the campaignperformance metric specified by the condition meets the respectivethreshold for the campaign performance metric; identifying, based on amaximum processing time in which the candidate rule can be executed in apreview context that presents a preview of changes to the set ofcampaign management entities based on execution of the candidate rule, asubset of the set of campaign management entities on which the operationcan be executed within the maximum processing time, the subset ofcampaign management entities including more than one campaign managemententity but fewer than all of the campaign management entities of the setof campaign management entities; executing, within the maximumprocessing time, the candidate rule within the preview context,including executing the operation on each campaign management entity inthe subset of campaign management entities without executing theoperation on any campaign management entity that is not in the subset ofcampaign management entities; modifying the user interface to visuallypresent a first preview that lists only those campaign managemententities in the subset, and for only those campaign management entitiesin the subset, (i) a current value of the particular distributioncriterion for the campaign management entity and (ii) a new value thatwill be assigned to the particular distribution criterion for thecampaign management entity when the operation of the candidate rule isexecuted; enabling, after modifying the user interface to present thefirst preview, a user interface control that allows a user to activatethe candidate rule; detecting, after modifying the user interface topresent the first preview, user interaction with the user interfacecontrol; and in response to detecting the user interaction with the userinterface control: activating the candidate rule for use in an automatedmanagement of the advertising campaign.
 10. The software of claim 9,wherein the instructions cause the data processing apparatus to performoperations comprising: determining whether execution of the operation ofthe candidate rule on all of the campaign management entities wouldexceed the maximum processing time; in response to determining thatexecution of the operation of the candidate rule on all of the campaignmanagement entities in the set of campaign management entities wouldexceed the maximum processing time: selecting the proper subset of thesubset of campaign management entities.
 11. The software of claim 10,wherein the instructions cause the data processing apparatus to performoperations comprising: in response to determining that execution of theoperation of the candidate rule on all of the campaign managemententities in the set of campaign management entities would not exceed thepreview threshold: executing the operation of the candidate rule on eachcampaign management entity in the set of campaign management entities,wherein the first preview lists the current value and the new value foreach campaign management entity in the set campaign management entities.12. (canceled)
 13. The software of claim 10, wherein: selecting a propersubset of the campaign management entities comprises selecting a numberof campaign management entities for which a processing time required toprocess the changes of the particular distribution criterion for thecampaign management entities in the subset of campaign managemententities is less than the maximum processing time.
 14. The software ofclaim 10, wherein selecting a proper subset of the campaign managemententities comprises selecting campaign entities according to an orderedsequence.
 15. The software of claim 10, wherein selecting a propersubset of the campaign management entities comprises selecting campaignentities according to a random sequence.
 16. (canceled)
 17. A methodperformed by a data processing apparatus, the method comprising:accessing, by the data processing apparatus, a data store storingadvertising campaign data used by an advertising service, theadvertising campaign data including a plurality of campaign managemententities including an advertising campaign entity that defines anadvertising campaign; updating, by the data processing apparatus, a userinterface of a client device to present user interface controls thatenable a user to define an operation and a condition for a candidaterule associated with the advertising campaign entity, wherein: thecondition specifies a campaign performance metric for the advertisingcampaign and a respective threshold for the campaign performance metric;and the operation (i) is executed in response to detecting that thecampaign performance metric specified by the condition meets therespective threshold for the campaign performance metric and (ii)specifies a change to a particular distribution criterion for each of aset of campaign management entities associated with the advertisingcampaign entity when the campaign performance metric specified by thecondition meets the respective threshold for the campaign performancemetric; identifying, based on a maximum processing time in which thecandidate rule can be executed in a preview context that presents apreview of changes to the set of campaign management entities based onexecution of the candidate rule, a subset of the set of campaignmanagement entities on which the operation can be executed within themaximum processing time, the subset of campaign management entitiesincluding more than one campaign management entity but fewer than all ofthe campaign management entities of the set of campaign managemententities; executing, within the maximum processing time, the candidaterule within the preview context, including executing the operation oneach campaign management entity in the subset of campaign managemententities without executing the operation on any campaign managemententity that is not in the subset of campaign management entities;modifying the user interface to visually present a first preview thatlists only those campaign management entities in the subset, and foronly those campaign management entities in the subset, (i) a currentvalue of the particular distribution criterion for the campaignmanagement entity and (ii) a new value that will be assigned to theparticular distribution criterion for the campaign management entitywhen the operation of the candidate rule is executed; enabling, aftermodifying the user interface to present the first preview, a userinterface control that allows a user to activate the candidate rule;detecting, after modifying the user interface to present the firstpreview, user interaction with the user interface control; and inresponse to detecting the user interaction with the user interfacecontrol: activating the candidate rule for use in an automatedmanagement of the advertising campaign.
 18. The method of claim 17,further comprising: determining whether execution of the operation ofthe candidate rule on all of the campaign management entities wouldexceed the maximum processing time; in response to determining thatexecution of the operation of the candidate rule on all of the campaignmanagement entities in the set of campaign management entities wouldexceed the maximum processing time: selecting the proper subset of thesubset of campaign management entities.
 19. The method of claim 18,further comprising: in response to determining that execution of theoperation of the candidate rule on all of the campaign managemententities in the set of campaign management entities would not exceed thepreview threshold: executing the operation of the candidate rule on eachcampaign management entity in the set of campaign management entities,wherein the first preview lists the current value and the new value foreach campaign management entity in the set campaign management entities.20. (canceled)
 21. The method of claim 18, wherein: selecting a propersubset of the campaign management entities comprises selecting a numberof campaign management entities for which a processing time required toprocess the changes of the particular distribution criterion for thecampaign management entities in the subset of campaign managemententities is less than the maximum processing time.
 22. The method ofclaim 18, wherein selecting a proper subset of the campaign managemententities comprises selecting campaign entities according to an orderedsequence.
 23. The method of claim 18, wherein selecting a proper subsetof the campaign management entities comprises selecting campaignentities according to a random sequence.
 24. The method of claim 17,further comprising: selecting, for inclusion in the proper subset ofcampaign management entities, up to a maximum of N campaign managemententities from the set of campaign management entities.
 25. The method ofclaim 17, further comprising generating an alert at the client device inresponse to execution of the operation of the candidate rule.